The word Kathakali means enacting a story as a detailed dance. Often the story is relating the victory of truth over falsehood.
A most important characteristic of Kathakali is the use of its typical make-up and colorful costumes. This is to emphasize that the characters are not humans but super natural beings from the heavens and their make-up is easily recognizable to the trained eye as satvik or godlike, rajasik or heroic, and tamasik or demonic. The performing art Kathakali is now attracting tourists from all over the world and is a main attraction for tourists who visit Kerala from European and other western nations. Lot of reswarch is also being done relating the topic. Foreigners who tour Asia and who plan trips to India tend to concentrate on various cultural and traditional aspects of the country like dance and music. click here for details>>

Mohini attam

The theme of Mohini attam dance is adored dedication to god. In most cases Vishnu or Krishna is the hero. The audience can feel His invisible attendance when the heroine or details the story through circular movements, subtle expressions and delicate footsteps. Through leisurely and medium tempos, the dancer incorporates various improvisations and suggestive bhavas and rasas or emotions.
The Mohini attam dancer maintains sensible make-up and adorns a simple dressing style, when compared to costumes of other Indian dances forms. The dancer often wears a beautiful white with gold jerry border Kasavu saree of Kerala, with the distinctive white sweet smelling jasmine flowers around the knot of hair on her head.

Bharata Natyam

Bharata Natyam the traditional dance form of Tamil Nadu has been handed down through the past few centuries by dance teachers (or gurus ) called nattuwanars and the temple dancers, called devadasis . In the sacred environment of the South Indian temple these families developed and propagated their heritage of dance and music. The training traditionally took around seven years under the direction of the nattuwanar who were scholars and persons of great learning. The four maestro nattuwanars of Tanjore, Tamil Nadu were adorned as the Tanjore Quartet and were brothers named Chinnaiah, Ponnaiah, Shivanandam and Vadivelu. The Bharata Natyam dance as we know it today was constructed by this gifted Tanjore Quartet. Bharata natyam is also having a lot of serious audience from all over the world. Foreigners who tour Asia and who plan trips to India tend to concentrate on various cultural and traditional aspects of the country like dance and music.

Kathak

This traditional north Indian dance form is intimately bound with classical north indian Hindustani music, and the musical quickness of the feet is accompanied by the table or pakhawaj. The stories enacted in this dance form are that of Radha and Krishna, in the Natwari style (as it was then called) but the Moghul invasion of North India had a somber impact on the dance. The dance was taken to Muslim courts and thus it became more entertaining and less religious in content. More emphasis was laid on nritta , the pure dance aspect and less on abhinaya (expression and emotion).